


Warm Hugs

by Mayarene Rose (Paradise_of_Mary_Jane)



Series: Whumptober 2019 [24]
Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Family, Gen, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, lots of hugs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2020-12-24 15:16:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21101585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradise_of_Mary_Jane/pseuds/Mayarene%20Rose
Summary: It's winter in Gotham.Damian is cold and Tim needs a hug.





	Warm Hugs

**Author's Note:**

> Day 25: Touch Starved

Damian shivers. Winters in Gotham are always hard, but this one is distinctly terrible, or at least he thinks so. He’s experienced very few winters so he does not have many points for comparison, but Grayson did say they got an unusually cold one this year. 

Not that the winters in Gotham were particularly warm before. 

Damian thought he knew cold--he grew up in a desert where the nights were long and the winds strong--but being in a place that turned rain to ice… It’s a different kind of cold. Damian hates it. He should be patrolling the southern district but he isn’t. It’s a childish act, but Damian cannot bring himself to move from his spot on a rooftop, bundled up in his cape and under his hood. No one would be mad enough to go out in this weather, anyway. Not even idiotic criminals.

At least that’s what he tells himself. Although, he can’t quite muster up the nerve to tell this to his father. So, there on the rooftop he stays. He refuses to call it hiding, but it would not be an inaccurate statement, either.

That’s how Drake finds him in the middle of patrol, shivering on top of a rooftop. He’d say the snow was beginning to blanket him if it wasn’t doing the exact opposite of what a blanket is supposed to do.

“What are you doing?” Drake sounds bemused. Damian musters up all the strength he can to glare at him.

“I’m patrolling,” he bites out. He pretends his teeth aren’t chattering. Drake probably knows this and this makes Damian disproportionately angry. The cold is clouding his thoughts. It makes everything sharper, easier to cut.

“This is a terrible vantage point,” Drake observes, sitting down right next to Damian. Damian feels his heckles rise further. The building is remarkably low, without much of a view of anything, but it’s also protected from the strong winds, making it the perfect place to settle, thank you very much. “You can’t actually see anything.”

“It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for all the snow,” Damian snaps.

“Why don’t you just head back? It’s not like you’re getting anything done right now.”

“I told Batman I would finish the patrol,” Damian says. “I will finish patrol.” If Grayson had been Batman, he’d have dragged Damian back to Wayne Tower hours ago, declaring that it was too cold for anyone to do anything. But Grayson had left Gotham months ago. And his father pushed himself further than anyone Damian knows. Damian has no right do anything less.

Usually, this would be the point Drake would scoff, roll his eyes, and find a way to leave. Damian hopes it is. He wants to wallow in his own misery for the rest of patrol.

Instead, Drake does the unexpected: he throws an arm over Damian’s shoulder and pulls him close for what could be called a _hug. _For a moment, Damian just sits there frozen. Drake’s body is remarkably warm and his own cape adds another layer of protection. Then, the entirety of the situation sinks in and Damian jumps away.

Their skin actually didn’t actually touch, but the spot where Drake’s arm had been still burns. And not in a comforting way. No one’s touched him like that in a long time. Not since Grayson left. His father certainly never did and Pennyworth always kept a reserved distance. Damian does not know Drake well. Drake left Gotham at the first opportunity, as well, and they had never been on friendly terms before that. And before that…

His mother is great at a good deal many things, but she had never been _affectionate._

He and Drake stare at each other. Drake looks curious and confused. And wary. They’ve only recently stopped fighting when Drake left. Damian does not know where they stand with each other.

Damian runs.

At least it warms him up.

\--

After that, Drake does strange things. He stays in the manor for the rest of winter. He takes to dropping blankets on Damian whenever at every opportunity he can get and dragging him back home on snowy patrols. He wraps his arms around Damian at all opportunities as if it was something they regularly did. As if they were _brothers._

(He can hear a voice in his head, sounding remarkably like Grayson, telling him matter-of-factly that they are, in fact, brothers.

Damian does his best to ignore this voice.)

Damian would think it was a conspiracy against him and take measures against it, if it weren’t for the fact that it was appreciated. Grudgingly appreciated, yes, but appreciated nonetheless.

Still, Damian learns to get used to the casual touch. Forces himself to learn, to not flinch away at the first sign of it. It’s a harmless act, after all. And Drake, he’s come to discover, touches very casually. It seems almost desperate at times, the way he holds onto Damian’s father, onto Pennyworth, onto Damian himself, like he’s scared they will disappear if his touch falters. But Damian can’t be certain. He does not know Drake very well.

Damian does not quite stop stiffening automatically whenever Drake’s skin touches his, but he grows used to it. He does not think he minds very much.

Drake’s hands are always warm and the winter was unusually cold that year.


End file.
